


Down we go

by tatch



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Bad Ending, Confessions, Day 5 - Downfall, M/M, Reaper76 Week, The Fall - Freeform, This about 95 percent angst, Wounds, You've been warned, Zurich, some fluff and attempts at humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 08:02:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13453941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatch/pseuds/tatch
Summary: There's an inferno burning down in the depths of the building, a low threatening light, silhouetting Gabriel's body in the dark, Jack distantly notices.Maybe he'd appreciate the way it highlights and compliments Gabe's features more, were they not in such a dire situation.





	Down we go

 

There's an inferno burning down in the depths of the building, a low threatening light, silhouetting Gabriel's body in the dark, Jack distantly notices. Maybe he'd appreciate the way it highlights and compliments Gabe's features more, were they not in such a dire situation.

 

* * *

 

* * *

 

The explosion rocked the building, not five minutes after Gabriel had found him, worried and tense, asking Jack to evacuate HQ because something was wrong, he'd been keeping an eye on the moles but this was _something more and the air in the hallways was thick with a tension he couldn't put words on and he didn't know what was going on but something was wrong and could they evacuate just in case_ \- The rambling had only been cut off by the distant sound of an explosion.

They both stilled, trying to figure out where the sound had come from.

Then the ground, the walls, everything shook.

Then darkness.

 

* * *

 

Gabriel woke up to pain and cold and a sense of dread. His left arm didn't answer when he tried to move. All he got was pain. A sharp lancing pain. Looking at it provided him with more information than he wanted.

There had been a 'rock slide', either the ceiling or the wall, maybe both, crumbling onto him, and while he'd escaped being crushed to death under rubble, his arm got trapped. Judging by what he could still feel from it, the limb (if he managed to free it) would be useless. Maybe only until it healed. God he hoped it would only be until it healed. Because as much as he knew prosthetics were a thing these days, Gabriel also remembered with painful clarity how difficult the transition had been for Jesse. The struggle to learn how to shoot with his other hand, the sleepless nights spent holding the kid as he shook. How _long_ it had taken.

_'Don't think about that now. There will be time to panic later. Focus.'_

 

He couldn't have been out for long, or the rescue team would have found him already. Not that he could hear them, or anyone, anything, besides the crackle of something burning out of sight and the barely audible sound of the stones and rubble shifting and settling minutely, more vibration than sound really. Either he'd been unconscious for a short time or the team wasn't finding him, couldn't him, for whatever reason-

_'Stay calm.'_

Easier said than done.

Breathe.

_'If the search team can't find you, you need to get out on your own.'_

Great.

First thing first. If he had to move, it meant freeing his arm and facing whatever damage or bleeding he might have to deal with.

Joy.

Gabriel grit his teeth. This was going to hurt.

 

* * *

 

A scream, coming from somewhere near, woke Jack up, instincts going into overdrive before pain stabbed at his thoughts when he tried to move. He smothered the cry of pain that tried to spring out of him into his arm, shuddering with the effort. He couldn't remember much beyond being with Gabe and- Something had exploded.

Jack's eyes opened wide. He couldn't _see_ anything. There was something warm and liquid trickling down his face and a pang of panic rose in his gut at the thought that the blast might have made him blind, shredding his eyes or something of the like. His face hurt in many places so it was possible. He swallowed, trying to fight the panic.

_'I'm not dead. I didn't get crushed to death. Or torn part by the explosion. Stay positive, Morrison.'_

Maybe he was blind, but he wasn't dead. Someone might come and rescue him. Overwatch's rescue teams were quick. The jumbled thoughts eased some of the terror away, allowing him to think of solutions instead of problems. He was good at that. Always had been. Alternate thinking, Gabe called it.

Shit, Gabe. Where was he.

Gabe might have been right next to him for all he knew.

Couldn't see, couldn't know.

 

"Ga-be?" Jack coughed. Smoke in the air, his brain supplied. Settling in his lungs, burning his throat, slowly choking him. Making his already not-exactly-smooth voice sound like utter garbage, gravel and rocks and hell, speaking hurt. Great.

_'Okay. Okay. Can't see, can't really speak, but I can still touch, right? Feel my way around.'_

He tentatively moved his arms, relieved that he could move them, and that there was no pain in the movement. His fingers smoothed down the surface at his back, following down until they reached another flat surface. Wall, ground. They spread away from him, carefully searching, hitting something, a lot of something, hard and cold, before he could even spread them fully. Something sighed over him, rock and metal, and Jack retreated his hands back to himself before he upset whatever balance the rocks around him had found.

 

He was buried under rubble, wasn't he.

Well, at least it explained the dark.

 

He felt himself for wounds, remembering the pain that had choked him when he'd tried to move. Chest was clear, minor cut on his throat. His face was still a throbbing mass of hurt and cuts and he'd rather not pass out from prodding too hard at it. There was a piece of metal embbed in the wall not two inches from his throat (and the thought that it wouldn't have taken much- that he could have- had his head spin.) Going back down, something that felt like a burn on his hip. Bruises and some more cuts. Leaning forward to feel along his legs brought the pain back, lightning flaring up his spine, stealing his breath as agony lit up every nerve.

Jack panted, hands shaking, the relief from the pain easing as he returned to his previous position leaving him dizzy.

 

There was something-

Something had happened to his legs.

 

* * *

 

Gabriel blinked back to consciousness.

He'd managed to free his arm but had apparently passed out shortly after. Hadn't gone far, as he could still see the darker marks his own blood had left here and there on the rubble. Why had he even moved. Or more accurately, why had he moved toward the newly formed end of the hallway, metal and rocks and something that looked way too much like a construction beam. There was no exit that way, not with his arm fucked up the way it was. Looking up, he could see the sky and _how long had passed since the explosion exactly._

Because what little slice of sky he could see was a dark orange, bordering on red, sign of the sun setting, and he distinctly remembered that it had been past noon, somewhere in the afternoon when he'd left his own office, deep in the bowels of the Blackwatch part of HQ to go find Jack.

What were the rescue teams doing. How had they not found him yet. Where was he- _they_

_Where were they._

Shit shit shit.

 

Jack had been with him.

 

How had he forgotten- _'Not now.'_ His partner couldn't be far, unless he'd gone to get help. And Gabriel _knew_ Jack wouldn't have left him behind. Not unless the search party was just around the corner. He should be near.

His eyes drifted to the collapse ceiling and walls and dread seeped in his veins like tendrils of ice. "Jack?"

A muffled sound, coming from the rubble. That's _why_ he'd moved that way in the first place. He'd heard something and tried to move that way.

Shit, _Jack_.

If that's Jack.

It had to be.

Please, please let it be Jack.

 

It took him a couple more calls and muffled answers before he could pinpoint where the weak replies were coming from accurately.

At first glance, the part of the rubble the voice was coming from didn't look much different from the rest, stones and rocks and part of the ceiling, collapsed sideways. But after a closer look, Gabriel noticed that the beams, that had, not so long ago, been keeping the ceiling up, and some of the metal that used to cover the walls had caved on one another, in a way that may indicate an empty space, a pocket of air.

"Jack?" The reply was weaker than before and but it _was_ coming from right there.

_'Hang on in there, I'm gonna get you out.'_

Getting the inside of the pocket to see the light of 'day' was a tiring matter of shouldering, elbowing and kneeing stuff open and away. Gabriel grit his teeth and kept up, pushing through pain. Finally, finally, he reached something that looked like the inner layer. He wedged a foot there, pressed his shoulder here and used his good arm to push the upper part _up_. And coughed, tears pearling at the sheer amount of smoke that poured out, choking him. A second, maybe two, then it was gone, air breathable again.

Light flared back to life, no, not light, embers, the darkened end of something that could have been a desk or a chair. Fire coming back to life thanks to oxygen being renewed.

Crap.

 

Jack was sitting on the ground, back to the wall. He seemed dazed, head lolling, his skin pale, too pale. Short breaths, shallow and rapid, a rasp at the end of each exhale. Lack of oxygen, Gabriel's brain supplied, smoke inhalation. His face was a mess, lacerated in multiple places, one eye swelled shut, a large cut running so close to it that Gabriel wasn't sure there wouldn't lasting damage. Even with their enhancements. Not that it was the time to think of that.

"Jack. Jack, hey hey, Jackie. C'mon baby, stay with me."

Jack's eyes were _trying_ to fix on him, no matter how badly he was failing.

"That's it, there you go. Listen to me, okay."

A hitch in Jack's breath, tongue darting out to wet dry lips.

"We're gonna get out of here. I'm gonna look at your wounds and we're gonna get out of here, even if I have to drag you out myself, you hear me."

Lips twitched, valiantly trying to smile, though it turned into a wince as soon as skin moved too much.

"I hear ya..." Shit, Jack's _voice_.

"My arm's fucked. Got crushed by rubble. I _need_ you to move out of here on you own, can you do that?"

Jack swallowed, eyelash fluttering.

"I can crawl but my legs... Something happened. Couldn't see what. Hurts."

Gabriel followed the line of Jack's body, a sight his eyes were accustomed too, though the circumstances were far less pleasant this time around. And his legs-

 

" _Shit._ "

"That sounded bad." The voice's weak but the tone almost conversational, trying for levity. Typical Jack. Trying to see the good even when there's none.

Jack's armored boots had protected his legs not quite up to the knees. His knees had been shredded by something, his thighs lacerated up to mid-height. There was more damage on his right side than left but Gabriel could see the glint of metal here and there, speaking of shrapnel still embbed in flesh. The limbs looked like they were still attached to Jack and there wasn't so much blood flowing out of the wounds, more of a faint trickle. No arteries touched. Unless the bleeding was internal, but Gabriel really really didn't want to think about that possibility.

He swallowed thickly, searching for words. He'd have to find bandages, needles, thread, disinfectant and how was he going to get them out, he couldn't carry Jack, not like this _and Jack couldn't walk and where were those fucking rescue teams they'd been praised for not last year_ -

_'Later. Breathe. Focus.'_

 

"Gabe ...?"

"If ... you put your weight on your left side, it should hurt less." The struggle to keep his voice from betraying how terrifed and helpless he felt right now was making him sound very blank. He trusted Jack to understand the tone, to not ask questions _because he's not sure where to start or what to say that won't send Jack or him or the both of them into a panic attack and that won't help right now-_

"... 'kay." Jack leaned back, head butting against the wall as he closed his 'good' eye and breathed slowly. Bracing himself for the pain to come, if Gabriel was to guess.

It lasted a beat or five, an eternity and a half of Gabriel biting his lip in worry, copper and bright pain distracting him from how sore his back felt. From muscles screaming and the lancing agony of his useless arm. Finally Jack moved, tiny shifts, careful and controlled, trying to limit the pain. It didn't seem to work much, if the chocked sobs, the whines escaping gritted teeth and the sharp cut-off halfway through breaths were anything to go by.

 

It hurt to watch.

It hurt to listen.

It hurt to stand there and know that there was nothing he could do because he was already doing everything he could do.

 

So Gabriel talked. He cooed and whispered and rambled a litany of encouragements, of quiet 'that's it sunshine, just a bit more, you're almost there', of gentle 'you can do it, baby, I know you can do it'.

He didn't know whether Jack could hear him through the haze of pain but he kept going. Coaxing his partner into crawling out his hole and getting his ass where Gabriel could get to him and start helping.

 

A soon as Jack was out, Gabriel let the debris fall back down. He managed to take the few steps that separated him from his partner before his knees buckled, exhaustion and overworked muscles finally winning the battle against his will.

Jack- Jack looked passed out, that rasping still there in every breath but at least it's slow, quiet again. He pressed two fingers against his best friend's throat, checking for a pulse, a reassurance for himself. It's there, erratic and a bit wild but there nonetheless.

The exhale was shaky, a breathed chuckle of relief, more air than sound.

 

Gabriel looked up to the small part of sky he could see through layers of devastation, almost entirely black by now, shades of purple and blue lingering here and there.

_'How long until-'_

_'No. Not now. Later.'_

 

What mattered right now-

They were alive.

They had survived.

Right now, they were alive and Gabriel intended to keep it that way.

 


End file.
